Turntable apparatus for presses

ABSTRACT

The disclosure of this invention relates to a turntable apparatus for a press which carries a number of containers into which loose material to be compacted is placed and in which prior to pressing the container positioned in the press must be brought into a sealed relationship. The turntable apparatus includes a piston cylinder assembly connected to a collar for supporting a gear that rotates a turntable member. The teeth of the gear have sufficient long faces for meshing with a rack in a manner that the meshing relationship is not disturbed when the gear is raised. The gear also has other teeth to serve as a driving member of a clutch, the driven member thereof being secured to the turntable member. The construction and relationship of the gear is such that on it being raised, it both effects a raising of the turntable member to thereby disengage a container in the press from its sealed condition and at the same time engages the clutch members so that on operation of the rack a turntable member will be rotated.

United States Patent [1 1 Boshold [111 3,847,075 [451 Nov. 12, 1974 TURNTABLE APPARATUS FOR PRESSES [75] Inventor: Raymond F. Boshold, Springfield,

[73] Assignce: Wean United, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pa.

[22] Filed: Oct. 16, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 407,016

[52] US. Cl. 100/223, 100/218 [51] Int. Cl 133% 15/32 [58] Field of Search 100/223; 72/448, 419;

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,498,541 2/1950 Galper 2 100/223 X 2,785,594 3/1957 Eben et a1 72/448 X 3,334,578 8/1967 Lalande et al. 100/223 X 3,522,768 8/1970 Shann 100/223 X Primary ExaminerMilton S. Mehr Attorney, Agent, or Firml-1enry C. Westin; Daniel Patch [57] ABSTRACT The disclosure of this invention relates to a turntable apparatus for a press which carries a number of containers into which loose material to be compacted is placed and in which prior to pressing the container positioned in the press must be brought into a sealed relationship. The turntable apparatus includes a piston cylinder assembly connected to a collar for supporting a gear that rotates a turntable member. The teeth of the gear have sufficient long faces for meshing with a rack in a manner that the meshing relationship is not disturbed when the gear is raised. The gear also has other teeth to serve as a driving member of a clutch. the driven member thereof being secured to the turntable member. The construction and relationship of the gear is such that on it being raised, it both effects a raising of the turntable member to thereby disengage a container in the press from its sealed condition and at the same time engages the clutch members sothat on operation of the rack a turntable member will be rotated.

8 Claims, 4 Drawing Figures PATENIEDNHY 12 mm 3.847; 07 5 SHEET 30F 4 lllllllll FIG. 3

PATENTEBROY 12 m4 3, 847', 0 7 5 sum nor 4 FIG. 4

TURNTABLE APPARATUS FOR PRESSES The employment of containers carrying turntables is well known in the press industry. In one form the turntable is employed to carry a container into a number of stations associated with the press, such as a pressing or compacting station, an ejecting station and a container cleaning and lubricating station. The turntable is mounted to rotate about one of the tie rods of the press and the stations are spaced circumferentially equal distance about the axis of this tie rod.

The present invention pertains to such a press arrangement in which there is a requirement incident to some phase of the press cycle that the turntable be moved relative to its axis of rotation. In this event, it is the object of the present invention to provide a means for moving the turntable relative to its axis of rotation and a means for furnishing a rotational force for rotating the turntable, in combination with an engageable and disengageable means, which latter means are brought into an engaging condition on movement of the turntable in one direction to deliver the rotational force of the rotating means to the turntable, and brought into a disengaging condition on movement of the turntable in a second direction.

More particularly, it is the object of the present in- FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of the rack assembly shown in FIG. 2, and

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken on lines 4-4 of FIG. 2

' In referring first to FIG. 1, there is shown, as noted above, a vertically arranged billet compacting press 10 which while it can take several familiar forms, the press illustrated is of a three-tie rod construction, and rods being designated at l2, l4, and 16. The tie rods support an upper stationary crosshead 18 which. supports a number of working piston cylinder assemblies, several being shown as assemblies 22, 24, and 26 at the top of the crosshead. r

The piston cylinder assemblies of the crosshead 18 provide the working force for a ram 28, arranged on the center working axis of the press and adapted to compact material received in an axially aligned container into a billet. FIG. 1 only makes a Showing of two of the containers 30 and 32, a turntable 34 actually carrying three such containers. The turntable is rotatably mounted around and supported by the tie rod 12. The container 30 is actually shown in the billet ejecting position, into which position it is rotated by the turntable 34 after the pressing operation, and hence, is shown under a vertically arranged ram 36 of the ejecting press 38. The ram, according to well-known practice, is

moved through its working stroke by a number of piston cylinder assemblies 40 arranged at the top of a C frame 42 that forms the frame structure of the press 38.

Since the general construction of the presses l0 and Y 38 follow familiar designs and the present invention length to allow maintenance of a meshing relationship even though the gear is moved axially of its axis of rotation, and power means for raising and lowering said gear and turntable.

It is another object of the present invention to further provide for carrying the container by the turntable in one vertical position and in a second vertical position, namely, the pressing position, the container is carried by other means and the turntable is free of all axial pressing forces, and in which said power means takes the form of a piston cylinder assembly having a stroke sufficient to first cause engagement of said clutch members, then to cause the turntable to carry the container and further to lift the container to a position where it will move out of contact with said other carrying means and free to be rotated out of the pressing station by rotation of the turntable.

These objects, as well as other features and advantages of the present invention, will be better appreciated when the following description of one embodiment thereof is read along with the accompanying drawings of which:

FIG. 1 is a general elevational view of a combined billet compacting and ejection pressing arrangement, including a turntable apparatus built in accordance with the teaching of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a portion of the turntable apparatus shown in FIG. 1, particularly illustrating the construction pertaining to the supporting tie rod of the press and the container arranged in the pressing station; I

pertains particularly to turntable34 the other elements that make up the presses will not be described. For ready reference in connection with FIGS. 2, 3 and 4 before leaving FIG. 1 it may be helpful to identify that FIG. 1 illustrates a gear 44 and a gear rack 46 employed to rotate and index the turntable 34 which will I the vertical arranged tie rod 12 about which the turntable 34 rotates. A portion of the turntable that is shown in FIG. 2 extends horizontally away from the tie rod 12 into a container carrying position 48, the turntable actually being made up of three such portions for carrying three containers. FIG. 2 shows the container 32 already identified in FIG. 1, located in the compacting station of the press 10 and in the position it assumes during the compacting operation. As such the container 32 is shown at its lower end to be engaging a lower stationary support 50. The container, as shown, thus provides a continuous uniform lined opening 52, with a sealed closed lower end being provided by a closing plate 53. As noted, the support 50 is stationarily supported, being received in an entablature 54 of the press 10.

Returning now to the turntable 34 as shown in FIG. 2, its central portion is associated with a vertical hollow sleeve 56 arranged concentric with the tie rod 12 to which is secured an outer sleeve 58 which is separated from the sleeve 56 by tubular bushings 60 and 62 that allow for vertical movement of the turntable 34 relative to the tie rod 12. The weight of the hollow sleeve 56 and the sleeve 58 together with thatof the turntable 34 is transferred to the entablature 54 by virtue of a sleeve 64 the lower end of which is supported by a projecting portion of the hollow sleeve 56, the lower surface of this projecting portion contacting an adjacent surface of the'entablature 54.

Immediately below the bushing 62 arranged so that the teeth face downwardly is a driven member 66 of a clutch. The driving member 68 of the clutch is arranged directly below the driven member 66, in which the teeth of the member 68 are formed on the upper surface of the gear 44. The gear teeth of the gear 44 run parallel to its axis of rotation and have lengths approximately twice the length of the teeth of the rack 46 which allows for a predetermined vertical movement of the gear 44 without disrupting its meshing relationship with the rack. This movement is accomplished by providing a sleeve-type bushing 70 between the sleeve 56 and the gear 44.

The vertical movement of the gear is performed by a pair of piston cylinder assemblies 72, the rod ends of which are connected to a crosshead 74, which as noted in FIG. 2, is vertically slideable over the sleeve 56 by virtue of the bushings 70. The actual connection between the gear 44 and the crosshead 74 is provided by a ring 76 having a projecting surface which extends into a circumferential groove in the gear that allows the piston cylinder assemblies to both push and pull the gear towards and away from the turntable 34, and the gear to rotate relative to the crosshead 74.

The piston cylinder assemblies 72 are carried by the entablature 54 of the press 10 and have strokes sufficient to first raise the gear 44 to both engage the clutch members, then a further distance to cause the top surface of the gear to contact and raise the turntable 34 so that the turntable in turn will raise the container 32 out of engagement with the support 50 and provide an additional clearance between the two. The contact between the upper surface of the gear 44 and the bottom adjacent surface of the turntable 34 is identified in FIG. 2 by the surfaces 78 and 80, respectively. FIG. 4 best illustrates the surface 78 of the gear 44 and the surface 80 of the turntable 34. It will be noted that the clutch teeth 68 consist of three in number and are arranged 120 degrees apart, whereas the support surfaces of the gear cover the balance of the 360. FIG. 4 also shows that the teeth of the gear 44 extend a distance slightly greater than l20.

As already mentioned, it is highly desirable to free the turntable 34 from the working forces of the press 10. This is accomplished by providing a clearance 82 between the turntable and the container 32, which clearance as shown in FIG. 2, prevents the working forces of the container 32 from passing into the turntable, the forces being taken by the entablature 54 from the support 50. The separation provided between the clutch members 66 and 68, as shown in FIG. 2, will allow the rack 46 to be returned to its retracted position in readiness for the next rotation and indexing of the turntable 34. This movement of the rack 46 is per formed by a piston cylinder assembly 84 which is shown only in FIG. 3 where it is shown connected to the rack 46. The rack is supported and guided by a channel-shaped guide frame 86 and having a jamb nut 88 for engaging a cushioning piston cylinder assembly In briefly describing the operation of the turntable apparatus, let it be assumed that the parts are in the position shown in FIG. 2, which shows the container 32 positioned in its sealed position in readiness to secure scrap to be compacted into a billet. In this position, the

clearance 82 between the container 32 and the turntable portion 48, is as shown in FIG. 2 so that the turntable will not be subject to the working forces of the press 10. The separation of the clutch members 66 and 68 will allow the rack 46 to be retracted in readiness for the next rotation and indexing of the turntable 34.

Upon completion of the compacting operation by the press and the retraction of the ram 28 thereof, the piston cylinder assemblies 72 are operated to first engage the clutch members 66 and 68 and to further raise the gear 44 to cause it to come into a supporting and lifting relationship with the turntable 34. The turntable is thus lifted to take up the clearance 82 between the portion 48 and the container 32 and to raise the container clear of the support 50 a distance sufficient to allow the container to be rotated from the pressing station to the ejection station and under the ram 36 of the ejecting press 38. This rotation and indexing of the turntable 34 is accomplished by operation of the piston cylinder assembly 84 to extend the rack 46 and rotate the gear 44.

In accordance with the provisions of the patent statutes, I have explained the principles and operation of my invention and have illustrated and described what I consider to represent the best embodiment thereof.

I claim:

1. In a press having turntable for selectively carrying a number of containers into and out of a pressing station of said press,

means for lowering and raising said turntable to bring said turntable into two different axial positions with respect to the pressing axis of said press,

a driving member mounted in a spaced relationship with said turntable,

a driven member connected to said turntable arranged to be engaged by said driving member on operation of said turntable, lowering and raising means to bring said turntable into one of said two different positions, and

power means for driving said driving member to cause a rotation of said turntable when said turntable is in said raised position.

2. In a press having a container adapted to be brought into and out of a sealing relationship with a sealing means, said container being carried by a turntable associated with said press for positioning said container in a pressing station of said press and in at least one other station,

means for lowering and raising said turntable to bring said container into and out of said sealing relationship with said sealing means,

55 a driving member mounted in a spaced relationship with said turntable,

a driven member connected to said turntable arranged to be engaged by said driving member on operation of said turntable raising means to bring about said nonsealing condition of said container,

and power means for driving said driving member to cause a rotation of said turntable when the container is in said nonsealing condition.

3. In a press according to claim 2, wherein said turntable lowering means includes a piston cylinder assembly,

said piston cylinder assembly connected to a crosshead,

said driving means comprising a gear, and

said crosshead arranged to carry said gear in a manner that the gear is free to rotate relative to said crosshead but restricted to move axially of said rotational axis with said crosshead. 4. In a press according to claim 2, wherein said turntable includes means for supporting said container in a manner to create a clearance between said turntable and said container when said container is in said sealing condition with said sealing means.

5. In a press according to claim 2, wherein said driving member comprises a gear and a series of clutch teeth,

said driven member comprising another series of clutch teeth mounted on said turntable in a manner that these teeth may be brought into and out of engagement with the clutch teeth of said driving member, said gear also having supporting surface arranged to engage a complementary surface formed on said turntable on axial movement of said gear, and

said surfaces being so constructed that when engaged to furnish support to said turntable said clutch teeth are arranged in their proper driving relationship.

6. In a press according to claim 5, wherein said power means includes a rack arranged to mesh with said gear and a piston cylinder assembly for moving said rack a and wherein said gear has teeth of sufficient length to maintain the gear teeth in a meshing relationship with said rack during said axial movement of said gear.

7. In a press according to claim 2, wherein said press includes a number of tie rods,

means for rotationally mounting said turntable about one of said tie rods in a manner that said container can be positioned in said pressing station and in said other station, and

said mounting means including means for permitting said turntable to move both rotationally and axially of said one tie rod.

8. In a press according to claim 7, wherein said mounting means further includes a sleeve secured to and mounted concentric with said one tie rod,

a bushing means arranged between said sleeve and said turntable to provide both axial and rotational movements of said turntable relative to said sleeve,

said driving member comprising a gear mounted below said turntable and concentric with said sleeve,

other bushing means arranged to allow both axial and rotational movements of said gear relative to said sleeve, and

means secured to said tie rod for supporting said sleeve and said turntable when said turntable is not supported by said power means.

l l l= 

1. In a press having turntable for selectively carrying a number of containers into and out of a pressing station of said press, means for lowering and raising said turntable to bring said turntable into two different axial positions with respect to the pressing axis of said press, a driving member mounted in a spaced relationship with said turntable, a driven member connected to said turntable arranged to be engaged by said driving member on operation of said turntable, lowering and raising means to bring said turntable into one of said two different positions, and power means for driving said driving member to cause a rotation of said turntable when said turntable is in said raised position.
 2. In a press having a container adapted to be brought into and out of a sealing relationship with a sealing means, said container being carried by a turntable associated with said press for positioning said container in a pressing station of said press and in at least one other station, means for lowering and raising said turntable to bring said container into and out of said sealing relationship with said sealing means, a driving member mounted in a spaced relationship with said turntable, a driven member connected to said turntable arranged to be engaged by said driving member on operation of said turntable raising means to bring about said nonsealing condition of said container, and power means for driving said driving member to cause a rotation of said turntable when the container is in said nonsealing condition.
 3. In a press according to claim 2, wherein said turntable lowering means includes a piston cylinder assembly, said piston cylinder assembly connected to a crosshead, said driving means comprising a gear, and said crosshead arranged to carry said gear in a manner that the gear is free to rotate relative to said crosshead but restricted to move axially of said rotational axis with said crosshead.
 4. In a press according to claim 2, wherein said turntable includes means for supporting said container in a manner to create a clearance between said turntable and said container when said container is in said sealing condition with said sealing means.
 5. In a press according to claim 2, wherein said driving member comprises a gear and a series of clutch teeth, said driven member comprising another series of clutch teeth mounted on said turntable in a manner that these teeth may be brought into and out of engagement with the clutch teeth of said driving member, said gear also having supporting surface arranged to engage a complementary surface formed on said turntablE on axial movement of said gear, and said surfaces being so constructed that when engaged to furnish support to said turntable said clutch teeth are arranged in their proper driving relationship.
 6. In a press according to claim 5, wherein said power means includes a rack arranged to mesh with said gear and a piston cylinder assembly for moving said rack a distance to move said turntable between said stations, and wherein said gear has teeth of sufficient length to maintain the gear teeth in a meshing relationship with said rack during said axial movement of said gear.
 7. In a press according to claim 2, wherein said press includes a number of tie rods, means for rotationally mounting said turntable about one of said tie rods in a manner that said container can be positioned in said pressing station and in said other station, and said mounting means including means for permitting said turntable to move both rotationally and axially of said one tie rod.
 8. In a press according to claim 7, wherein said mounting means further includes a sleeve secured to and mounted concentric with said one tie rod, a bushing means arranged between said sleeve and said turntable to provide both axial and rotational movements of said turntable relative to said sleeve, said driving member comprising a gear mounted below said turntable and concentric with said sleeve, other bushing means arranged to allow both axial and rotational movements of said gear relative to said sleeve, and means secured to said tie rod for supporting said sleeve and said turntable when said turntable is not supported by said power means. 